Lorna Moloney, resident genealogist at Dromoland Castle in Co. Clare, told the Irish Independent that she used public Catholic Parish Register records to uncover a link that connects Markle to a woman called Mary McCague, who was born in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway in October 1829.

Mary went on to marry a Thomas Bird, a soldier in a British Army regiment stationed in Ireland, and the couple then moved to Malta where they had two children. Years later, their daughters travelled to Canada and later settled in the United States.

Moloney believes that Hattie Bird, the couple's daughter, is an ancestor of Markle's.